The Anti Money Laundering Fight is On in Hong Kong, Beijing and Macau

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has met with Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM) and representatives of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

After the meeting, the AMCM announced plans to launch a new Financial Security Expert Alliance in order to tackle money laundering, the finance of terrorism and other serious financial crimes. The HKMA has also declared that it will form a Fraud and Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce which will bring together the police form and financial regulators.

These plans show a harmonised push in collaboration with Bejing to stop the offshoring of dirty money from China.
Beijing is continuing to clamp down on Macau, which is a known hotspot for money laundering. Officials in Macau have confirmed that ATM users with UnionPay bank cards from China will need to pass facial recognition tests and scan their identity cards before being able to withdraw cash. However, this is rumoured have been put in place to put on a show in light of the forthcoming visit from the international Financial Action Task Force scheduled for 2018.

Until the country made its gambling operators covered entities within its Anti Money Laundering Act, the FATF had intended to put the Philippines on its anti-money laundering blacklist. The Philippines is expected to revise its AMLA to show legislators appreciation of the fact that 10% of the countrys GDP is made up of remittances from workers overseas. Being included on the FATF’s blacklist would result in raised transaction costs for these workers and their remittances.